Thursday, October 1, 2026
The Olympia City Council unanimously approved an ordinance extending the city’s public health emergency on houselessness.
The action renews an emergency declaration first enacted in 2018 and extends it through Dec. 10, 2027, with a required review after 12 months. It enables the city to respond more quickly to health, safety and environmental concerns associated with unsheltered homelessness.
At a presentation during a city council meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 18, Community Planning and Economic Development Director Susan McLaughlin said despite progress in expanding shelter and services, Olympia remains in a “continuing state of public health emergency.”
Houselessness has increased steadily since the initial declaration in 2018. The ongoing conditions driving the public health emergency include the following:
“These circumstances present significant public health and safety issues for the entire community,” states a staff report on the issue.
By continuing the emergency status, the city retains expanded authority to respond quickly, including the ability to:
“This will enable the city departments to work more nimbly, more expeditiously and with more urgency,” McLaughlin told the council.
The ordinance also authorizes the mayor to submit a written request to the Thurston County Board of County Commissioners and the Washington Governor's Office to make available county and state lands, buildings, and other resources to address the public health emergency caused by the rapidly growing houseless population in the city.
Before the vote, Mayor Dontae Payne opened the public hearing on the ordinance, but no community members participated in public process.
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Wesley
They're called vagrants. They are in a state of vagrancy, which is illegal.
Monday, November 24, 2025 Report this
JulesJames
Nine years of "emergency"? Maybe we should examine the effectiveness of the emergency response? Such as "Harm Reduction" -- recently likened to government handing out loaded handguns to those showing suicidal behaviors. We've created a land use development model where a "qualified" NGO gets free government land to build "low-barrier" flophouses. Government housing for free with no behavioral restrictions?!?!? Come one, come all to the great Olympia taxpayer give-away!
Monday, November 24, 2025 Report this
BobJacobs
Some numbers would be helpful. Especially the number of homeless people in Olympia, Lacey, and Tumwater. I ask this because it feels like Olympia may be bearing the brunt of this problem. Ditto for money spent annually by each jurisdiction. Numbers should be total and per 1,000 population.
This is something that JOLT's reporters should be able to put together.
Bob Jacobs
Monday, November 24, 2025 Report this
gypsydjango
Christians, I trust.
Monday, November 24, 2025 Report this
MikePelly
Olympia, Lacey, Tumwater and Thurston county have plenty of empty strip mall stores and office buildings. Would it be too impossible for the cities to work together to lease and heat one of these during these harsh winter months so homeless people can have a place to come in from the cold, get warm and sleep without catching pneumonia or needing to burden medical professionals and running up large hospital bills at St. Pete's or Capital Medical center? This was the inspiration for why a conservative Republican from Utah started Rapid Rehousing a couple decades ago.
Monday, November 24, 2025 Report this
OlyBlues
Such incredible work being done by the Olympia city council to have a 7+ year ongoing emergency declaration on homelessness with city staff reporting for another year that there is no progress. Lets not forget the homeless tax that was supposed to help. In any functioning business or Government agency this would be recognized as a total failure.
Instead of trying a different approach such as enforcement of trespassing, drug, loitering, camping, and other laws that would keep the city clean, the city continues to pander, tolerate, and encourage more transients to move to Olympia. Hooray for all of this woke progress!
Monday, November 24, 2025 Report this
mhjwilson
How many units of housing is the city short?
How many have been permitted but not finished?
How long does it take to get the permits?
Approximately, ow much does a permit cost?
Monday, November 24, 2025 Report this
hptrillium
Progress on housing people has been made but more and more people are becoming houseless because there is not enough affordable housing. Putting people in jail for not having a home will not solve the problem.
Monday, November 24, 2025 Report this
Callie
Thank you hptrillium - It's a supply issue- Check out the book:
Homelessness is a Housing Problem
Using accessible statistics, the researchers test a range of conventional beliefs about what drives the prevalence of homelessness in a given city—including mental illness, drug use, poverty, weather, generosity of public assistance, and low-income mobility—and find that none explain why, for example, rates are so much higher in Seattle than in Chicago. Instead, housing market conditions, such as the cost and availability of rental housing, offer a more convincing explanation.
Tuesday, November 25, 2025 Report this
JW
I'm all for supporting someone that lost their job or housing situation and needs a help up. The problem is that our elected officials and leftist voters lumps this small minority in with the vast criminal transient element of drug users/dealers, *** offenders, and violent felons.
You're right: I have ZERO compassion for the criminal transient element and am sick and tired of them being coddled and enabled to prey upon the rest of us. Ship them off to a labor camp in the north Cascades for all I care.
Tuesday, November 25, 2025 Report this
Southsoundguy
Vagrants.
Tuesday, November 25, 2025 Report this
CobraCommander
Wesley: One of my favorite Jesus quotes was the one where he talks about not helping the unhoused because vagrancy is illegal
Tuesday, November 25, 2025 Report this
CobraCommander
"For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink. And behold, now I'm lazy and all entitled, you shouldn't have done that" - Republican Jesus
Tuesday, November 25, 2025 Report this
DudeInOlympia
*cracks beer* Republican Jesus 2028!
Tuesday, November 25, 2025 Report this
BrightLite19
I recently had a divorce, and neither of us could take on the house payment on our own. We sold the house and split the proceeds. Not much left for either of us for any kind of downpayment for a new home to make an affordable payment. I qualify for a USDA direct loan to help with getting a manufactured home with a payment I can afford, but the list of people waiting for this loan is so high, that it’s a 2 to 3 year wait! Renting is also too high per month. I bought an rv, and plan to live in it for now. I still work, pay my bills, and barely eat. There HAS to be more housing for people on lower incomes, seniors, disabled, and new families. We’re not all lucky or rich.
Tuesday, November 25, 2025 Report this
The_Armed_Gardener
Actual bullet points:
•Drugs
•Enablement
•Freebies
•Suicidal Empathy
•The Perpetuating Nature of The Homeless Industrial Complex
Tuesday, November 25, 2025 Report this